Comparison Standard Single-cell electrolyser and the patented Spirig® Multi-cell electrolyser

Why is the worldwide patented multiple-electrolysis cell design far superior to the old known single-cell electrolysers?

Electrolysis follows the basic electro-physical law of Faraday. Regardless of the nature of the electrode materials or electrolytic fluids used it says: To produce 100 litres of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen a current of 165 Ampere DC must flow for one hour through the electrolytic cell from the positive to the negative electrode and it decomposes 54,6 gramm of water. The dc voltage across the cell to force the 165 Amp through the cell now depends entirely on the electrode material, electrolytic fluid composition and on the geometric size of the cell. The surface area and the distance between the two electrodes defines the electric resistance. The temperature of the electrolytic fluid influences the resistance. The gas bubbles moving upwards in the fluid between the electrodes do also increase the electrical resistance.

Designers have tried to optimize this basic single cell design, but the most negative point of the very high dc current (165 amp per 100 litres/hour) needed to get a technically feasible and acceptable gas output could not be eliminated as it is a basic physics law in single cell designs.. If the necessary dc current can be cut in half or even to one tenth then the heat losses created by the current would be reduced by a factor 4 or even 100 ! Heat losses increase with the square of the current.

The patented multiple electrolysis cell design of Spirig reduces the high electrolysis currents by a factor of ten or more, but multiplies the number of cells in use by that factor. This sounds logical, but the complexity of such an arrangement, if realized by ordinary cell design (pot + cover with electrodes) would be too complicated and too expensive. The patented Spirig multiple - cell design is an elegant design allowing multiple cell combinations with a minimum of seals and a minimal complexity of the required gas volumes and electric connections to pass the currents from one cell to the next without creating excessive by-pass (stray) currents lost for gas production.